Pride Month: A Life Insurance Marketing Opportunity Harnessed by Few and Missed by Many

Research shows fewer LGBT individuals work with a financial professional compared to the general population, despite same-sex couple families having higher savings, income and investible assets on average than other family types. Though this underserved market presents a multitude of opportunities for insurers, only 27% of Life Insurance Monitor firms harness the publicity surrounding June’s Pride Month to target members of the LGBTQ community to gain new prospects and clients. Firms that do generally promote their involvement in related community events on social media, though two firms integrate content visibly onto their public sites.

John Hancock, MassMutual, New York Life and Northwestern Mutual employees attended Pride events that the firm later tweeted about with pictures and pledges of support. John Hancock posted an additional photo of employees, noting the firm’s inclusiveness with the hashtag #PROUDatWork. The firm also used rainbow lettering for its name in its Twitter handle during the month of June. Northwestern Mutual, the presenting sponsor of Sculpture Milwaukee, posted photos of Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture and encouraged communities to celebrate all love.

John Hancock Tweet

While New York Life attempted to engage the LGBTQ community over social media, unlike others in the coverage group, it failed to take a targeted approach. Instead, it modified an existing campaign, which features a type of plan, such as the one displayed below. All posts in the month of June included the hashtag #NYCPride2018 and encouraged people to click the given link to learn more about how the firm celebrates the LGBTQ community. However, the link only leads to the product recommendation tool. While all three of the June tweets involve marriage, love or family, none seems tailored to the LGBTQ community, which risks alienating prospects who may see the campaign as a half-hearted approach.

New York Life Tweet

In terms of public site content, MassMutual and Liberty Mutual were the only two firms in the coverage group to update their public sites to reflect Pride Month. Though Liberty Mutual simply provided a small Pride flag in its footer, MassMutual demonstrates the range of ways that firms can recognize Pride Month.

For the month of June, a banner with an image of a rainbow flag greeted prospects visiting MassMutual’s site, wished them a happy Pride Month and linked to the Our Strength Is Each Other page, which compiles LGBTQ-related resources. A timeline on the page shows ways the firm has proved its commitment to the LGBTQ community, dating back to 1998, when it added domestic partnership benefits to HR policies, through 2018, when it signed amicus briefs supporting transgender rights and received a 100% rating on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index. Other resources include a video about inclusiveness and six linked blogs from the past year that address various topics, from unique risks for LGBTQ workers to estate planning for LGBT couples. The page encourages prospects to find an advisor who focuses on the LGBTQ market, linking to a pre-filled search on the Find an Advisor page. Outside of the website, the firm promoted blog posts and pledged its support to the LGBTQ community in several tweets.

MassMutual Our Strength Is Each Other Page

For more information about how firms promote community-target resources, Annuity Monitor subscribers can check out our June report, which overviewed advisor site affinity marketing materials offered by leading annuity providers. A similar Life Insurance Monitor report will be available in July.